GPS-based navigation systems, including those employed in vehicular applications, are useful and common. The user interface to these types of navigation systems continues to improve and can now accept information from social networks and realtime information from traffic control systems. However, other improvements may further enhance the functionality of these systems and make them even more user-friendly. For example, in current systems, audible navigation instructions are provided based on information derived from map data, but these instructions do not take into account what the user of the navigational system can actually see. These kinds of systems are therefore capable of providing limited information to the user.
Including other kinds of information, such as visual information acquired by an imaging system, may make navigation systems more user friendly. In addition, adding visual information to instructions provided by the navigation system may allow these systems to function in a manner more natural to a user. For example, the visual information derived from an imaging system may be translated into context aware information delivered to the user in a manner similar to having a passenger in a vehicle supplying directions to a driver of the vehicle. For example, instead of simple instructions such as “turn left in 100 m”’ or “turn left at the next intersection” a passenger might say “turn left where the red car turned” or “turn left past that yellow awning.”